Biography

Barbara Grout believes that all students can learn.  Her goal is to inspire students to master the skills of learning piano.  She has seen that studying music develops attention span, concentration level, perseverance, organizational skills, task completion, goal setting and self-confidence. 

She has taught Suzuki Piano since 1984.  She has a Bachelor of Music Degree, cum laude, from the University of Miami (Florida) School of Music.  She studied saxophone, piano, flute and clarinet, played in the University of Miami jazz bands and double-majored in Music Education and Music Therapy.  She has also built her own dulcimer and can strum a few chords on the guitar.

She developed an award winning children’s music program for the Glenwood Springs Public Library in the early ‘80s, played in the Crystal River Orchestra, the One Night Stand ‘40s Band and started a music and sign group at the Rocky Mountain Center for Disabilities in Glenwood Springs. She also taught music part-time at a private school.

After moving to Vermont, she put on weekly music and story-time puppet shows at the Shelburne Vermont Public Library.  She also performed for birthday parties with the puppets that she designed and created.

She has a passion for bringing music to seniors and plays regularly at assisted living and nursing homes in the Longmont area.  She also plays as an accompanist for the Longmont Senior Center’s Kitchen Band. 

In 2005, she coordinated the Practice for Pets fund-raiser for the Humane societies of Boulder and Longmont which raised $8,000. The grand finale was a concert at the Twin-Peaks Mall in October with many students dressing up like their animal friends.

Barbara Grout is trained to teach the Suzuki Piano Method through Book Five.  Her teacher trainees include:  Beverly Fest, Robert Fraley, Marilyn Taggart and Constance Starr, the woman who brought the Suzuki Piano Method to the United States from Japan. In the summer of 2007 she attended the Colorado Music Teachers’ State Conference, as well as a pedagogy training with Carolyn Shaak, author of the Shaak Music Series, an Alfred Music Training with Dennis Alexander and a six-day intensive work-shop with the Musikgarten Company which specializes in developmentally appropriate music programs for young children.

Barbara is a member of the Music Teachers National Association,  president-elect of the Boulder Area Music Teachers Association, past co-president and secretary of the Boulder Valley Suzuki Teachers Association, a member of the Suzuki Association of Colorado, and the National Suzuki Association of the Americas (SAA).